~Forced To Change.~
"Memories were always priceless," ~ P.N
************
(Past Continues)
"Ah-um-ex...excuse me." On reaching Zaid's table, Shravya lightly whispered. Hearing her Zaid and Ansh stopped talking and their gazes fell on her nervous frame.
"You." Zaid's eyes narrowed in a glare, disdainfully looking at her. "What do you want?"
Not preferring to meet his coercing orbs, Shravya looked down, fidgeting with her fingers whereas Ansh looked at them, perplexed. Not knowing what was happening.
"I'm here to tell you that...that---" she proceeds further and tried to heave the words out of her mouth but alas, she failed in doing that, finding herself out of words.
"You are here to tell me what?" Zaid raised his brow, annoyance was clear in his tone. He was becoming irritated by her stuttering.
"Mam said that you..and..." Unwillingly, she shuttered again. The expressions that filled her face were varied. They showed restlessness and anxiety.
On seeing no sign of her speaking any further, Zaid lazily leaned back in his seat, charitably accepting the attention that now, surrounded him from all sides.
Now, everyone's focus was on their table.
"Will you mind speaking a bit faster?" His expressions were stiff, not caring about the looks others were giving him. He was used to being the center of attention. Wherever he went, as long as there were people present, he could effortlessly obtain a massive quantity of gazes.
Maybe because he was good-looking or maybe because he was related to the Grovers.
Shravya's lips slightly parted and she apprehensively shifted her eyes up from the floor only to meet Ansh's dark brown orbs who in return, gave her a small and eager smile.
"Mam paired me with you for an assignment." A small sigh of anxiety leaped out of her parted lips as she finally let the words out.
"Pardon!" a sudden sough escaped past Ansh's mouth as his mind tried to register the proportion of her words. He couldn't swallow the fact that this timid-looking girl before him, wants to work with Zaid.
Is she serious?
Before his thoughts could rise further, Zaid's voice knocked them back to their previous position. "I don't want to work with you," he scowled, daring her to argue back. "Go back and ask your professor to pair you with someone else."
'Childish' Shravya thought, giving him a blank look and trying hard not to roll her eyes. What is the use of having such a good-looking face, when the owner of that appearance was still a bratty child?
She felt it was a pity.
Amidst having his hard gazes on herself, she silently lowered her head, breathing slightly as deliberately, her arm reached up to touch her spectacles. When her fingertips felt the rigid body of her specs---still placed on her eyes---she inappreciably eased.
For her, her spectacles were like a thin shield that protected and distanced her from others and now, the spectacles were with her so, she found herself in protection.
Gradually, blinking away the anxiety, she looked straight into Zaid's coal-black orbs, which were trying to dig holes in her head.
"I tried to talk with Mam, but she's refusing to change the pairing," she spoke.
Zaid crossed his arms, sneering and giving her a simple void look. "And I have already enlightened you about my decision. I don't want to work with you."
"But she will mark me fail if you did this," she defended.
"I don't care."
"You...you can't do this!" Her lips parted, surprise rendering her speechless and she couldn't continue anymore. "You..."
He is so mean.
"I can---"
"He will help you, so you both can stop arguing." It was Ansh, who suddenly spoke between them.
"Why!?" Zaid looked at Ansh fiercely, before glancing back at Shravya, suspiciously. She held his gaze, very well knowing he couldn't exactly point out the opposition in her eyes. And it felt as a nominal success to keep her head up and meet his eyes, equally.
"Zaid it's not like she will bite you," Ansh commented and got up from his seat. "Chill man! and help her as a responsible senior you are," he added, picking up his phone and moving to leave as he gave Shravya a nod of acknowledgment which she gladly returned.
Zaid clicked his tongue and also turned to leave but Shravya stopped him.
"When can we start working?" She questioned, looking down at the books in her hold. "Actually I have to submit the assignment before next Monday---" she fumbled over her words in jitteriness when she hoisted her gazed up and find him standing before her, closer than she had anticipated.
Self consciously, she tugged on the sleeves of her woolen cardigan and looked at him. During her babbling, she did not notice him moving towards her.
"Haath do (show me your hand)," he said, stretching out his hand to her.
Shravya was startled and blinked severally on this action of his. She stared at his stretched palm as several kinds of expression reckoned on her face.
Doubt.
Uncertainty.
Confusion.
Skepticism
Before her expression could transform further, she noticed him glaring at her, appearing as if he was going to snap at her, again.
"Show. Me. Your. Hand," he repeated each word, pausing in between with intensity.
Troubled and a little reluctant, Shravya unfolded her palm.
Zaid sighed, carefully taking her hand in his and picking up a pen that was placed on the table, beside his books. "Remember to note down this address." He wrote something on her upturned palm. "This Friday, I'll meet you in this cafe. We'll talk about the assignment there."
Curtly nodding, Shravya glanced at her hand as he walked past her, putting her to remain still in her spot.
She stood there, unmoved and uneasy, just staring at the words which were penned on the surface of her palm.........................
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"He agreed to work with you?" Tanveer asked and she meekly nodded her head in affirmation.
Unexpectedly, her gaze moved on a withered flower, the same flower which was blooming some days ago.
"Time changes the nature of the whole world; everything passes from one state to another and nothing stays like itself," ~ Lucretius
Time indeed changes everything but the thing it changes, sometimes don't change on their own, the circumstances, situations or sometimes some people force them to change and that's what happened to the flower and with Shravya too.
In that fragile plant's case, the atmosphere and weather forced it to change. And in Shravya's case, Zaid Grover forced her to become a girl, who is broken and scared.
He forced her to change, his deeds forced her.
She squeezed her lower lip between her teeth when a precarious breath rolled out of her mouth.
Tightly fisting her dress in her fists, she closed her eyes, feeling a lump rising in her own throat and knowing she was getting panicked again because her instincts were constantly confiding her that the changes she once went through are nothing in front of the changes future beholds for her.
"Then, did you get to meet him?" Her fists on her dress loosened their hold as she heard Tanveer's voice.
Dread increased, but she nodded, rubbing her sweaty palms on her dress. She intertwined her hands together. She felt suffocated, clearly hearing the sound of her own heartbeats.
This sudden rise in anxiety made Shravya scared.
The fear in her heart was like a serpent who finally woke up after being in sleep for so long.
Slowly, in the form of terror, the serpent's cold and boneless body gradually glided across the top of her heart, provoking the trembling of her body.
"You okay?" Tanveer's voice drove with concern when he found her looking uncomfortable.
"Will you please...pass me a...glass of....water?" she whispered and he looked a bit taken aback when he saw her face all sweaty and almost pale white.
"Wa...ter," she whispered again and he hastily picked a glass and the water jug from the table.
Pouring some water into the glass, he handed it over to Shravya. She took the glass and hurriedly gulped down the water as a swift, firm shudder trotted through her body when the water came in contact with her burning and dry throat, bringing her some relief.
She sighed, feebly breathing, and put the glass back on the table.
"Are you okay, Shravya?" She heard his restless voice again and slowly nodded. "Yeah."
"So, where I was?" she asked to divert the topic, not wanting to make him worried. "Yeah! I was saying that Zuzu gave me a cafe address," Trying to avoid him, she continued but stopped when she noticed him, still wearing a bothering look and standing before her, still holding the water jug.
"I'm alright now," she spoke, making him reluctantly ease back in his seat as with a meek smile, she again continued with the past................................
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